2. 72 hours later and no comment by the NRA is remarkable.

I've been watching it like a hawk all weekend, and like you, I suspect it went into damage control mode ASAP and have been in it all weekend trying to hash out talking points. The fact that it had nothing for their surrogates to say on the Sunday morning talk shows is quite interesting. I'm wondering if all hell has broken loose within the executive ranks of the NRA, especially for them to not have a response by now. To be a fly on the wall there!

Timing is everything, and for the NRA, the Sandy Hook shooting couldn't come at a worse time and place. After telling us shooting after shooting this year that "now is not the time to discuss the politics of the matter," THIS massacre goes completely against the NRA's game plan, which Wayne LaPierre usually phoned in.

Also from a PR standpoint, the NRA is running out of time to effectively state its case. Once the funerals are televised 24/7 this week showing teddy bears on the coffins, and Diane Sawyer nabs her inevitable primetime exclusive with the grieving families sitting in front of their Christmas trees with presents that will never be opened, the NRA is going to suffer a blow similar to how Rush Limbaugh took it in the shorts commenting about Sandra Fluke. And when Congress reconvenes, gun control legislation is going to be at the top of the agenda with much of the public's support.

It'll be interesting and disgusting watching the balloons being floated on talk radio this week. But I think business as usual for the NRA is going to work against the organization.

4. Here's my hope you got this one called.

But I can't escape the feeling that the silence isn't for lack of talking points (seen all the usual ones right here on DU this weekend from their programmed followers) but instead this is a deliberate strategy.

The pros know they can't fight this one head on because the usual tactics will not work. People are too pissed off and their usual belligerency will backfire. Anything they say will be used against them this time.

So they just back off so they don't create any more debacles. Wait for an appropriate amount of time -- I predict the first moves in the week after Christmas with a full out blitz after the new year. Perhaps an ad campaign about defence against people like this. You can be damned sure that despite the silence those money channels in the back room are still nearly overflowing.

5. I think hell would freeze over before the NRA does the mea culpa.

Their tactic of silence for the moment could work, I admit it. But given the way this year has gone, wow, one more mass shooting between now and Congress reconvening in January will really hit that organization hard, especially if it thinks silence is golden.

And a note to all you CUckoos monitoring this site: While I have no love for the NRA, I don't want to see another normally peaceful place turned into a shooting gallery so the gun lobby loses its influence over Congress; that's just sick. The gun lobby should have lost its influence a long time ago — like when Reagan was shot.